Sony Classical partners with the Metropolitan Opera

Four CD sets and four DVDs of Met productions to be released in February.

In a new partnership, Sony Classical is releasing a series of recordings (audio and video) recorded live at the Met in New York. The four CD sets are drawn from the famous Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts dating from between 1947 and 1962.

“Opera lovers should be very pleased to have these historic gems available, as well as some of our most recent high definition transmissions,” commented Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager. “We are committed to serving our public with the greatest possible range of operatic artistry.” While Sony Classical’s president Bogdan Roscic said “The Met broadcast archive is one of the ultimate treasure troves of recorded music. We’re happy to be able to make some of its most legendary tapes available for the first time in the way they should be presented. Today, the Met’s work of course gets preserved in a much different way, and so we also look forward to releasing some of the most spectacular recent productions in glorious HD video.”

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia was recorded on December 16, 1950 and features Lily Pons as Rosina, Giuseppe di Stefano as Almaviva and Giuseppe Valdengo as Figaro. Other members of the cast include Salvatore Baccaloni (Don Bartolo) and Jerome Hines (Don Basilio). Alberto Erede conducts. Puccini’s La bohème was recorded on February 15, 1958 with Thomas Schippers conducting. Licia Albanese is Mimì, Carlo Bergonzi Rodolfo, Mario Sereni Marcello and Laurel Hurley Musetta. The earliest recording dates from February 1, 1947 and finds Jussi Björling as Romeo and Bidú Sayão as Juliette in Gounod’s opera. Emil Cooper conducts. Leontyne Price sings the title-role in Puccini’s Tosca from April 7, 1962. Franco Corelli sings Cavarossi and Cornell MacNeil is Scarpia. The conductor is Kurt Adler.

The video releases all date from the past few years and draw on productions already seen in cinemas as part of the “Met Live in HD” series: John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in Peter Sellars’s production (2008) with Gerald Finley as J Robert Oppenheimer and Alan Gilbert conducting. Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is seen in Anthony Minghella’s production (2009) with Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio San and Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton. Patrick Summers conducts. From October 2008, Karita Mattila appears as Salome in Richard Strauss’s opera. Patrick Summers is, again, the conductor. And the most recent releases finds Plácido Domingo in the title-role (as a baritone) in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with Marcello Giordani as Gabriele Adorno, James Morris as Jacopo Fiesco and Adrianne Pieczonka as Amelia. The Met’s music director James Levine conducts.

Antonio Caldara, born in Venice in 1670, became vice-Kapellmeister at the Viennese Hofkapelle in 1716 remaining until his death in 1736. There he had a fine ensemble of musicians and this recital showcases some of the more unusual instruments he had at his disposal including the salterio – a large hammered dulcimer. Valer Sabadus, one of the five star countertenors on Virgin’s lauded recording of Vinci’s Artaserse, performs a brace of arias from opera and serenati. His bright bell-like tone and effortless fiorature is startling from the get-go and his accompanists play with gusto. Sample track five Ahi! Come quella un tempo città, where a plethora of plucked instruments is a sheer delight with the state-of-the-art recording capturing every nuance from thrumming bass notes to glittering treble. Ditto the following Ah se toccasse a me with a pair of lutes duetting in call and response. Questo è il prato pairs haunting flute and chalumeau – a primitive ancestor of the clarinet with a peculiar rustic sound of its own. Lute aficionados will enjoy this disc as Caldara wrote for the great Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, and Michael Dücker (who leads the ensemble) is a thoughtful player. Cellist Ulrike Becker and ensemble…

Editor’s Choice, Jan/Feb 2016 – Instrumental It has been clear for some time that Lang Lang has grown into a sensitive, thoughtful musician. He was always an excellent technician and a marketing department’s dream: reading the blurb accompanying this release you might assume that no pianist ever recorded anything in Paris before. My research suggests otherwise. With his huge Chinese fan base, Lang Lang is the most well-known classical pianist on earth. Some condemn him for sticking to a narrow Romantic repertoire when he could be commissioning new work or rediscovering forgotten masterpieces. Certainly, while Chopin’s Scherzi are not easy to play, they are nothing compared to the challenges a pianist like Marc-André Hamelin routinely sets for himself. However, in his own way Lang Lang is pushing the envelope. He recently recorded Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto – much less user-friendly than the Third – and here he plays Tchaikovsky’s relatively rare set of 12 pieces, one for each month of the year, misleadingly titled The Seasons. Appropriately, Chopin provides the stylistic model for Tchaikovsky’s piano writing, with its limpid melodies and touch of melancholy. Lang Lang allows his expressive palette full rein, whether it be in the relentless rhythmic patterns…